Susan Shimeld
Wildlife Artist, Pet Portrait Artist and Natural History Illustrator
SAVE THE ALBATROSS APPEAL

Nineteen of the 21 species of Albatross are facing Extinction because of a fishing method called Longline Fishing. Longline Fishing, much of it by illegal pirates, kills 300,000 seabirds and hundreds of thousands of sharks and turtles each year. 

You can help by saving your old and used Postage Stamps, see below for more information, or by making a donation direct to Birdlife International or the R.S.P.B. For those of you that would like to donate and also enjoy a 'flutter' please visit Big Bird Race 2005.

Photograph - Andrew Watts

Albatrosses are magnificent birds. The largest species, the wandering albatross, has a wingspan of 11 feet, and can live for fifty years or more. Albatrosses are unusual in that they select a mate for life and lay only one egg per year. Their only need to touch land is to nest and raise young. 

For over a year each parent in turn makes frequent trips of up to five thousand miles, for days on end, to bring food back for the hungry chick.

Albatross feed on fish and squid, which they find in the open ocean and can fly thousands of miles without pause. If one of the parent birds are killed, the orphaned chicks die of starvation.

Young birds lucky enough to survive set off on a 3 year journey immediately after fledging. Some birds fly as far as South Africa but have also been reported in the North Pacific, off the West Coast of North America. Sadly many are killed during this period before they can return to the original nesting sites to breed. With so many thousands of bird being killed so quickly by longline fishing, these species cannot reproduce fast enough to make up the numbers lost. 

Longline fishing consists of lines that can be an incredible 80 miles (130km) long. Thousands of baited hooks are attached to lines. Some carry up to 10,000 hooks. These are towed at depth behind fishing vessels so they can catch vast numbers of large fish like southern bluefin tuna and Patagonian toothfish. 

The slaughter of seabirds takes place when these hooks are still visible near the sea's surface. The foraging birds spot them and try to grab the bait before it sinks. The albatross suffers a long and painful death as the hook embedded in the squid bait catches and rips at its throat and drags it underwater.  The albatross chokes and drowns as it is dragged along two thousand feet below the surface; it remains unnoticed until its bedraggled corpse is hauled up and discarded.

Photograph - Andrew Watts

To stop birds being needlessly killed, it is essential to stop them having the opportunity to swallow the baited hooks before they have sunk. Once set in the water, the hooks are too deep for the birds to reach. There are many cheap and readily implemented solutions to the problems such as: weighting baited lines to make them sink out of sight more quickly, using bird scaring devices to warn birds away from baited lines or setting lines only at night, because most albatrosses feed by day.  Many fishermen, once they understand what's involved, are keen to adopt these methods and employing them is of benefit to the fishermen themselves.

Albatrosses roam right around the world, so international co-operation and regulation is needed.
Please help the RSPB and Birdlife International save these magnificent birds from global extinction.

Photograph - Andrew Watts

Postage Stamps - The RSPB raise £1.50 per kg for UK stamps and £12.50 per kg for foreign stamps. Last year the RSPB raised almost £3,000 for the RSPB's funds, from donated old and used postage stamps. Your donation will be used to help fund a global campaign to save the albatross from indiscriminate longline fishing.

If possible, please put UK and foreign stamps in separate, labelled envelopes. You don't have to steam the stamp from the envelope, just tear off the corner with the stamp and send it in. Post your stamps to RSPB Stamps, P.O. Box 6198, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, LU7 9XT

Please make a donation today. Thank you.

Many thanks Andrew for the photos.


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Wildlife Artist, Pet Portraits and Natural History Illustrator
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Larmer Tree Studio


All Artwork, Images & Content © Susan Shimeld. 2002. All rights reserved.